


Higher, Faster, Further

by DiamondWings



Series: Bloom, Love [7]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Magic Boarding School, Angst and Fluff, Competition, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fae Felix, Feelings Realization, Felix is so done, Happy Ending, Jisung is a poor bab, M/M, Not so much enemies but rivals, Pixie Jisung, Some angst, Their moms are not to be messed with, There's more to both than meets the eye, They are so innocent omg protect them, They didn't choose to be rivals, a little violence but not much, feelings are complicated, feelings discussion, not between them though, they both are in a way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21571180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiamondWings/pseuds/DiamondWings
Summary: They never asked to be rivals. They certainly never asked to have their lives be put on the line for sport. Maybe they should learn to ask for some things…
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han & Lee Felix
Series: Bloom, Love [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1553968
Comments: 60
Kudos: 174





	Higher, Faster, Further

**Author's Note:**

> “Awww…” Felix cooed, kicking his feet cutely as he was overcome with adoration. Young love! Another of his favourites. The potential true love had to grow and become something truly great when it was found at such a young age… That was something truly magical. Whenever he encountered it, it made his entire day. And to find it for himself… Who would have thought?! Not him! But it sure made him happy, incredibly so. If only more beings found their true love so early on in their lives… The realms would be so much better places…  
> Above him, the pool rippled again, catching his attention. He hadn’t even summoned a reflection! Or had he…?

“A pixie could never make the Flaming Firebush give up one of its fruits! Never! That is a job for a fae, and only a fae! It’s foolish of you to believe Jisung stands any chance!” Teacher Park argued loudly, followed by a chorus of voices cheering their agreement, and countered by a cacophony of voices protesting his statement.

“Jisung is more than capable of getting a mere piece of fruit from a stupid bush! Fae aren’t that special, and pixies have their own set of tricks, as you should know! Against plants, too. You’d be surprised! I bet you Jisung could even get the fruit in half the time it would take Felix!” Teacher Moon answered derisively, scoffing in the direction of the aforementioned Teacher Park and the students gathered around her. Loud cheering from the students on her side followed, and arguing and booing from the other side.

In the middle of it all, next to the two teachers, stood two boys: Felix, a fae, and Jisung, a pixie. The only fae and the only pixie attending the School of Clé in the ninth District; due to special circumstances, since the school was otherwise reserved for warlocks, witches and wizards. Even though the odd other creature could also be found there, none of the others were creatures from the first District, like Felix and Jisung. And so, the student body and the faculty alike were split in two pretty even factions: those that supported Felix and believed in the superiority of the fae, and those who supported Jisung, claiming that it were the pixies who were the superior species.

Ever since the two had started attending this district’s School of Clé, they had been pitched against each other, unwittingly gaining their following from day one to cheer them on in countless pointless competitions designed solely for the purpose of measuring them against each other. At this point, in their final year, some kind of minor competition in some class was a nearly daily occurrence; and at least once a week, there was a major competition the entire school came to watch.

“Oh, you want to bet? Let’s bet. Tomorrow, in the greenhouses!” Teacher Park challenged, and Teacher Moon agreed quickly.

“Noon sharp!”

They sealed the competition time and place with a firm handshake that looked as if they were actually trying to dismember each other.

Internally, Felix sighed. Another lunch he would have to sacrifice. Maybe he could sneak some food out from breakfast and hide in his dorm for later. Otherwise, the afternoon would be an uncomfortable affair tomorrow, with a rumbling stomach.

He barely registered as the two factions dispersed, unworried about the competition tomorrow. He had sung to the Flaming Firebush, convincing it to give him it’s fruits many a time for the overseer of the greenhouses, Mr Bak; in turn, Mr Bak provided him with a nicely sized supply of apricot tartelettes every time. It was always a winning deal.

It was not like he was worried before any other competition, either, though. If he could do it, he could; if he couldn’t, he couldn’t. He gave his best every time, but he didn’t worry beforehand; if he did, he wouldn’t be able to do anything else with his life, considering the number of competitions his teachers signed him up for.

***

Noon the next day came, and after a signal from the teachers, Felix started singing for the bush in the language of the fae, until the bush allowed him to pick one of the berries that glowed red and hot like coals, which it usually hid in leaves of blazing fire. Almost bored, he delivered the berry to his teacher, who cheered.

Next up was Jisung, and he used a completely different tactic with the bush. Instead of charming the bush, he charmed the air, which attacked the bush for him until there was an opening he could dive into and pick a berry. He, too, delivered the berry to his teacher, and the two teachers compared times.

“One minute, fourty two seconds and exactly thirty-one hundredths of a second for both? This can’t be! Jisung definitely took longer! You just didn’t start measuring his time and left Felix’ on the clock instead!” Teacher Park argued, receiving an indignant response in kind from Teacher Moon.

Felix rolled his eyes to himself and slipped out of the greenhouses. Draws were his favourite results in competitions with Jisung; the two factions of supporters would always be too busy insulting and arguing with each other, and generally leave him out of it, meaning he could go after his own life again without anyone holding him up. Today, it meant he got to go and eat the sandwich he had smuggled out from breakfast that morning before his next class, and wouldn’t have to spend the afternoon hungry. To him, that was definitely a win.

***

Not even a whole week passed, before the next competition formed out of thin air. A couple of Storm-drakes had started nesting in the roof of the tower on the North-cliff. Now, Storm-drakes were a protected species, but they were also famed for their brood destroying the roofs of whatever building they nested in.

Of course, students and faculty alike made the relocation effort for the small winged lizards into a competition between Felix and Jisung to see who could get two of the four small hatchlings and bring them down to their new home first.

So, on Wednesday afternoon, four o’clock, pretty much the entire school was gathered at the base of the north cliff, bundled into thick jackets and scarves against the ever-present icy winds that howled around the north cliff year-round, at every time of the day.

Felix was convinced the winds were more aggressive today than usually, but he didn’t say anything. Still, he kept an eye on Jisung and his fragile gossamer wings; would the pixie be ok in this wind? He was lighter than Felix, and his wings more fragile…

The signal to start sounded, and Jisung threw himself into the wind, fighting against the gusts valiantly to get to the tower. Felix was right behind him, not needing to fight quite as hard, and still he overtook the pixie easily, getting to the tower first. He reached the nest first, too, though Jisung was there almost as quickly. Both of them busied themselves with holding the two upset Storm-drake parents at bay while tucking the hatchlings into the pouches they had brought specifically to hold the young for the flight down to the new nesting location.

Felix was about to put the second hatchling into the pouch, when he noticed out of the corner of his eye a gust of wind slam into Jisung’s wings and rip them open from where he had tucked them in. Jisung lost his balance immediately and toppled backwards off the ledge of the tower.

On instinct, Felix let go of the young drake he was holding and reached out to catch Jisung. He only caught his ankle, but it was enough to hoist him back over the ledge and onto the tower, where he could tuck his wings back in, as well as secure his second Storm-drake hatchling before taking off. Felix caught his own second hatchling, secured it in the pouch and darted after Jisung.

Despite his heavier weight and more flexible wings giving him an advantage in the storms of the north cliff, Felix arrived a whole one and a half seconds after Jisung, marking him as the clear loser of the competition.

Loud cheering from Jisung’s followers sounded as the pixie was taken into their middle and celebrated like a hero who had saved them all single-handedly.

On the other side, Felix stood alone, handing the pouch with the small drakes to the wildlife wrangler before making his way back to the school dorms on his own, only whispered comments about how he had disappointed them all following, comments about how he was a disgrace to the fae, and how could he have been that incompetent, to lose against a pixie?!

Felix ignored those comments, long since used to the consequences of losing against Jisung. They didn’t affect him anymore, hadn’t for a long while. What did affect him was the nine-paged essay he still had to write on The Effects of the Lunar Phases on the Success of Brewing a Truth-Serum, for Teacher Moon, and which he was still missing a whole four pages for until tomorrow.

***

A week later, another competition, and Felix was the champion of the school again, while Jisung was the disappointment who had let them all down and besmirched the reputation of pixies across all realms and Districts. And another week and competition later, and they were both forgotten about as the opposing factions tore into each other to determine who had cheated, because it just _couldn’t_ be that they had finished the competition in a clear draw.

Felix couldn’t be bothered less by any of it, deciding to avoid the heated discussions in the halls below by hiding away up on the roof of the kitchens, between the large chimneys that shielded him from the wind and warmed the air to a comfortable temperature even at night; not to mention the delicious smell of freshly baked bread which the kitchen staff was already preparing for breakfast the next morning they provided.

Felix lay contently, gazing up at the stars, for once in complete bliss and at peace with himself and the world in that moment.

“Oh… Sorry, I didn’t know you would be here…” A voice interrupted the blissful emptiness in his mind, and Felix sat up to see Jisung standing between two of the chimneys.

“It’s ok…” Felix conceded easily, expecting Jisung to turn around and leave, but he didn’t.

“Mind if I sit in there, too? I don’t really feel like going back in there just yet.”

Felix understood that sentiment like no other.

“Sure. There’s enough room for two.”

Jisung stepped between the chimneys and laid down on the roof, eyes turned up to the stars for a long time, the only thing audible between them their breathing and the occasional distant clank from the kitchens echoing through the chimneys.

“Why did you help me the other day?” Jisung asked after a long while, breaking the silence.

Felix shrugged, not averting his gaze from the stars above.

“Just because.” He answered nonchalantly.

“You could have won if you’d left me to myself…”

Felix hummed, agreeing.

“I could have. But then you could have gotten severely hurt on that cliff; and the two baby drakes you had on you, too. One of them hadn’t even been properly secured yet.”

Jisung remained quiet for a moment.

“But by doing that… You got hurt. With all your friends turning their backs on you…”

Felix chuckled lightly, though with not much humor.

“Some friends they are, turning their backs on me for not winning a measly academic competition; just to come back and be all over me the next week when I win again… Those are not friends, and they don’t have the power to hurt me in any way.”

They fell into silence again, Jisung deep in thought after Felix’ words. Felix got up after a while, though.

“I’m going to sleep. Good night, Jisung.” He greeted quietly before leaving the roof to return to his dorms before Jisung could so much as respond.

***

Weeks passed, competitions passed, with alternating or no winner at all, bringing them to this moment in time.

Felix and Jisung stood at the edge of what looked like a crater, but inverted, staring into the abyss leading into the sky. Somewhere, in the jagged slopes, the saliences and ledges, a Solitary Harpy was supposedly hiding. Their goal was to trick the harpy into leaving the inverted crater and thus lifting the spell that made the crater travel from place to place with no real destination, sending it back to wherever it had come from.

In theory, that wasn’t a hard task; all they had to do was catch the harpy’s attention and it would surely give them chase; lure it out of the crater, job done.

The problem was, the harpy was fast; very fast. It also had an extremely sharp beak and claws, and it was huge, way larger than them.

But they had to get this done, and better sooner than later. And so, Felix took off first, flying into the crater. If only he knew where the harpy was lurking… He scanned the walls of the crater thoroughly, trying to keep every centimeter of it in his view as he flew higher to not miss the dangerous creature when it showed.

It was a near impossible task, especially since he had to fly closer to the walls to potentially disturb it and get it to blow it’s cover, meaning that in the meantime, he’d have to leave the parts of the crater that were on the other side of where he currently was out of sight. A glance told him after a moment that Jisung had taken off, too, though, and was doing the same as him on the opposite side of the crater, covering that area, and together they worked themselves further up the dome-like structure. Like this, almost working together, they had a much higher chance to find the harpy and startle it, and lure it outside…

This lost in thought, Felix almost missed the movement out of the corner of his eye, and he could only jerk back in the last of seconds to avoid the harpy’s lunge as it dove out of its hiding place.

Internally, Felix cursed; he had the harpy underneath himself now, blocking the way back to the ground. His only hope in this was Jisung…

But the harpy was ignoring Jisung’s attempts to get its attention, instead focusing on Felix and flying tight circles, forcing him up, up, further up, where the bottom of the crater started getting narrower and limiting the room Felix had to fly in before he was inevitably trapped and at the creature’s mercy.

Felix tried to feint here and there, to trick the creature, to outsmart it, but his resources were limited, and why the hell did the harpy ignore Jisung’s attempts to get its attention?! Why was it only focusing on Felix?!

Slowly but surely, Felix got uncomfortable; very uncomfortable. He didn’t have a lot of room anymore before the harpy could strike and he wouldn’t be able to avoid it. He was at its mercy, which basically meant… He was toast.

In a desperate last attempt to free himself, Felix darted downwards, over the back of the harpy, attempting to escape that way. The harpy turned mid-air, though, and it’s sharp claws caught Felix, piercing skin and flesh as if it was butter.

Felix screamed, and then a flash of green shot past him, barreling into the harpy and forcing it to let go of Felix.

Felix was grateful for that, but it didn’t help him much; he was free-falling now, his body numb with pain and not cooperating, his wings not responding. If he wasn’t going to die in the claws of the harpy, he was about to die as a stain on the ground.

Or not, since the green blur showed up again and caught him mid-air, just in time to stop him from slamming into the dirt on the ground, and ducked out from under the edge of the crater with him.

Felix could barely see because of the pain coursing through his body, but he could hear. He could hear the surprised yells from his fellow students, could hear the cheering, and the booing. He ignored all of it, focusing on breathing through the pain, which became exponentially higher when he suddenly fell into the grass, rolling over a number of times before laying motionless, not far away from the green blur he’d seen before; Jisung. Why was Jisung laying in the grass, motionless, too? Why was so much of the green he chose to wear today… not green? But turning red? Before his mind could supply him with an answer, he passed out.

***

Felix got his answer when he woke up again. Jisung had saved him from the harpy and sustained a number of injuries himself, apparently. And apparently, their peers were not too happy about it. The general consensus was that Felix had been a dumbass to get himself trapped by the harpy, and Jisung was the hero who had saved him. Also, Felix was not worthy of Jisung’s help, and there was bitterness because the heroic Jisung had gotten hurt because of the dumbass Felix.

Felix could only roll his eyes at the commentary, limping his way from class to class like usual, and just waiting for the next competition to be made up. How about who could heal faster? Whose body could regenerate lost blood quicker? Or who could fly higher with only one fully functional wing? It was ridiculous, but if he was being honest with himself, Felix didn’t put it past his fellow students or even his teachers to decide to make a challenge out of either of these, and he kept his thoughts quietly to himself, lest he give anyone any ideas. That was the last thing both he and Jisung needed at the moment.

In an attempt to avoid students and teachers alike, Felix went against the resident healer’s suggestions and as soon as he could flew at least the short distance up to the roof of the kitchen and to his safe place, where no one bothered him.

No one, but one person… pixie.

“Felix?” Jisung’s voice rang out shortly after Felix had installed himself in his usual spot, his head carefully peeking around one of the chimneys.

“Here.” Felix answered calmly, and Jisung took a hesitant step forward.

“I… I’ve been looking for you…”

Felix rose an eyebrow, but didn’t look down from where he was looking at the stars spanning the night sky over them.

“Why? Is there another competition?”

Jisung shook his head rapidly.

“No, no competition. I… I wanted to talk to you.”

That succeeded in getting Felix’ attention enough for him to look away from the sky and at Jisung.

“Talk to me? Why?”

Jisung took a shaky breath.

“I… I wanted to apologize to you. I never meant for everyone to… to belittle you, because of what happened back there with the harpy…”

Whatever Felix had expected, that wasn’t it. And for the first time since he had started attending the ninth District’s School of Clé, he felt a genuine smile tug at the edges of his lips.

“Thank you, Jisung. But you don’t have to apologize. I’m grateful to you for saving me; you didn’t have to, had no reason to, but you still did. Whatever came out of that beyond that, you had no control over. How are you healing, by the way?”

Jisung gaped at him, then caught himself.

“Uh… Well, I’m healing, I guess? To be really honest, it’s not going spectacularly well, but I suppose it could be worse. At least I could fly again today. I tried to find you up here before today, but my wing was just… not cooperating. And… and you?”

Felix’ smile grew.

“Likewise. Today is the first day I managed to fly up here, too. Let’s not get sliced up by a harpy again, ok?”

Jisung chuckled, still a little nervous.

“That is something I can easily agree to. That was No Fun.”

Felix hummed in agreement.

“It wasn’t. Nor was it a task they should ever have bestowed on either of us; alone, together, as a competition or a team.” He sighed deeply, but kept his next thoughts to himself. Jisung was already eyeing him warily. After a moment, the pixie shook himself out of his thoughts, though.

“Yeah, uh… Anyway. I also wanted to apologize for… For hesitating so long to do something until it was too late. I feel like, if I had done something sooner, you might not have gotten hurt, and I’m sorry I waited so long…”

Felix shook his head at that, though.

“Don’t apologize, Jisung. It was not your fault. It was not your responsibility to help me. And I saw that you were helping; you were trying to get the harpy’s attention off me; be it to help me or lure it out yourself is irrelevant. You tried. It’s not your fault the harpy found me to be the more appetizing looking morsel.” His smile turned mischievous, and Jisung spluttered.

“Don’t let our teachers and classmates hear that, but that is one competition I am happy to lose!”

Felix laughed quietly.

“Your secret is safe with me. But, really: in the future, in whatever competition we are in, don’t feel obligated to help me when I’m in trouble; especially if it could get you hurt. But also, if it would make you look bad in front of the others. I won’t hold it against you.”

Jisung sobered, too, returning Felix’ look with a serious expression.

“Will you leave me hanging when I get into trouble from now on?”

Felix thought about it for a while.

“It depends. I’ll decide in the moment, if and when the moment comes.”

He got up then, walking towards where Jisung was standing and lightly patted the shoulder he knew Jisung wasn’t injured on.

“For now, I’m going to follow the healer’s orders and get some rest. Good night, Jisung. You should rest, too; who knows when they’ll stick us in the next competition.”

***

Surprisingly, it took a while before teachers and students decided to need to test Felix and Jisung against each other again. In the meantime, the two actually had time to heal. Still, Felix felt as if it was only just the first day he could move his wing and leg properly and without pain again, when the next big thing surged.

“They are definitely from the fae realm; and I don’t mean the first district! I mean the actual realm that birthed the fae! They look just like fae, just… darker. Wilder. Like… Like Felix’ evil twins…”

Felix frowned at those words he heard more and more frequently among the older students that day.

“What if they get out of the forest? Do you think we would stand a chance against them? I heard a lot of animals are fleeing from the forest. Do you think… Felix would stand a chance against them?”

“Felix might… they are basically the same, right? Only Felix is more civilized…”

“I don’t think Felix might, precisely because they are so alike. Jisung, on the other hand…”

And so, it started. And before long, not even a day and a half later, Felix and Jisung stood at the edge of the forest, tasked with going in and defeating… what exactly, they didn’t know, either. They didn’t even know the forest all that well, since technically, it was off limits for the students, unless accompanied with a teacher or school staff.

Felix didn’t glance over at Jisung, but he didn’t need to see the pixie to know Jisung must be as excited about this competition as he was: Not At All. He really, really didn’t want to go into that forest. If what he heard was true, there was a chance there were shadow fae in this forest… And in that case things would get ugly, quickly.

They had no choice, though, being urged on to go ahead, and they stepped past the tree-line simultaneously. As soon as they were far enough into the forest to be out of sight from the watching school community, Felix slowed down, though.

“Jisung!” He called out, causing the pixie to stop and turn around.

“What?”

Felix took a deep breath.

“This is madness. You know that, too, right?”

Jisung chewed on his lip.

“If there are truly shadow fae in here…” He whispered, fear bleeding into his voice.

“Exactly.”

“What do you suggest we do, though?” Jisung sounded desperate.

“Wait here. A squadron of warrior fae and charmers from the first district is on their way here to take care of whatever these creatures are. This is a task for professionals, not half-taught fledglings like us.”

Jisung looked warily at him.

“Just… wait here? Really? I… You’re not trying to trick me, are you?”

Felix gaped at him.

“Trick you? How so?”

“I don’t know… So you can do this alone while I wait around doing nothing, and you can win this competition?”

Felix blinked in confusion at Jisung, then shook his head.

“Really? I don’t care about this stupid competition. I haven’t cared about a single competition since we started this whole nonsense; what makes you think I would start now?”

Jisung shrugged, uncomfortable.

“I don’t know. I was just thinking… Since you have been so isolated lately… You might try to turn things around and get back in everyone’s favour with a win…”

Felix shook his head.

“I don’t care about any of those people out there. Their loyalty is conditional and their favor superficial. It means nothing to me-”

“Felix, watch out!!” Jisung yelled abruptly, and Felix turned around just in time to duck away from the shadow coming at him. It rushed over him, narrowly missing him, and a sickening laughter rang out between the trees. It stopped a little ways away, turning around, and Felix’ eyes widened in horror as he was barely able to make out the distorted features of the creature, too distracted by the large set of fangs protruding from its mouth and the glowing, dark eyes that lacked a pupil or iris. It started back towards him, and on instinct Felix gathered what little light fell through the trees around him and hurled it at the creature, which shrieked in pain and disgust.

“Run, Jisung!” Felix shouted, doing so himself. Jisung didn’t need to be told twice, darting off in the opposite direction of where the creature was, Felix hot on his heels.

Still, Felix was far enough behind Jisung to see the danger the other was running towards and seemed to miss.

“Jisung! Stop!” He yelled, but Jisung didn’t hear him; or simply ignored him.

Despite the trees standing far too close together for Felix to properly span his wings, he did the best he could, propelling himself forward as fast as possible to reach Jisung in time. In a way, he did, reaching Jisung just in time to grab his wrist before the other lost his footing; on the other hand, Felix’ own momentum was too great, too, and he fell right with Jisung. All he could do was hold onto the pixie tightly as they rolled down the ravine, hitting sticks and stones on the steep incline that was too sloped for even most trees to find a hold to grow on. At the bottom, however, the trees were plenty again, and one such tree stopped their hasty descent.

Felix and Jisung could only groan in pain as they collided with the tall oak, whose leaves didn’t so much as twitch despite the hard impact of the two bodies.

“I told you to stop…!” Felix half whined once he was able to catch his breath and sit up, and Jisung let out a slightly pained scoff.

“Yeah, that’s the first thing that would have come to my mind to do after seeing that… _thing_ that was chasing us! Did you see it’s teeth?! Speaking of, where did it even go-… _what?!”_ He interrupted himself there, seeing Felix’ eyes grow wide and feeling his hold on him grow tighter and tighter until it was almost painful. Following Felix’ gaze, he looked behind himself and quickly saw _what_. There, between the trees not twenty paces away from them were five more of the creatures, hovering in mid-air.

“Oh shit…”

 _Oh shit, indeed_ , Felix thought. And to make it worse, the rays from the sun didn’t even make it through the foliage anymore this deep out here in the forest, giving him nothing to fight the creatures with.

“How good are you at actually fighting, up close?” Jisung asked in a panicked whisper, scooting closer to Felix.

“I absolutely suck. You?”

“Me too. So, we just… die?”

“Doesn’t sound appealing to me. You can produce light, though, right?” Felix rushed out in a whisper, desperately trying to come up with something that could save them while the creatures started to advance on them.

“What? No, I can’t _produce light_ , what the heck? I can only make parts of my body glow in a way; it’s called bioluminescence-”

“Ok, whatever, firefly, just do it!” Felix cut him off, pulling Jisung to his feet while the hold he had on Jisung’s wrist was really becoming painful now.

“What-”

“Just do it!!” Felix shouted, and in his surprise, Jisung actually did, his hands starting to emit a strange, pale glow.

It wasn’t much, but it was something, and focusing hard Felix was able to produce some of his fairy dust and mold it to gather, reflect and amplify the glow in a blinding glare that threw the shadow-fae back for the time being, as they scurried to hide in the shadows again.

“What was _that?!”_ Jisung gasped, but Felix didn’t answer, quickly pulling him with him to put as much space as possible between them and the creatures.

“Shadow creatures hate light! If you want more details, ask me again later when we are out of here!” Felix huffed, darting through the trees as fast as he could. They just had to get out of here, as soon as possible; who knew how many of those shadow-fae were in this damned forest. For a moment, Jisung was quiet, opting to focus on running and keeping up with Felix lest the fae ripped his arm off and left the rest of him behind in his haste to flee. Suddenly, he dug his heels into the ground, though.

“On the right! Felix!”

“Light!”

“Fuck you, it’s not light!” Jisung muttered but his hands started glowing all the same and Felix bundled and redirected the light to hit the creature that was coming at them, throwing it back.

“I’m not calling it bio-whatever every single time, Jisung!” Felix grouched, again starting to run.

“We’re not going to last long like this; I have a limit to how much bioluminescence I can use!” Jisung warned, and Felix cursed under his breath.

“This is such bullshit! We are basically _kids_ , for fuck’s sake! This is a task for adults; trained warriors, not _us,_ not some stupid, pointless fucking academic rivalry for some asshole teachers who don’t give two fucks about us to bet on! We are too fucking young to die in this piece of shit forest-”

“Left, Felix, left!” Jisung interrupted his rambling, his hand already glowing, though much dimmer this time. Still, it was enough for Felix to throw the creature back for the time being.

Felix was about to continue his rant, but Jisung stopped him.

“Save your breath to run, I’m all out of bioluminescence. This is going to get ugly!”

“I don’t get how you can still focus on that word at a time like this!”

“Well-”

“Rhetoric remark! Save your breath to run!” Felix interrupted him, and they ran.

“There’s more coming in!” Jisung panted with a whine a moment later.

“I saw!” Was all Felix answered, veering slightly away from where they were going before as he led them. With no light to throw the creatures back, they were quickly closing in. Felix tried using his wings again, but there was not enough room; they would be more of a hindrance than a help in these narrow spaces.

And then, Jisung let out a yell, stumbling as the first of the creatures came close enough to lunge at him.

Mid-run, Felix turned enough to jam his elbow into the creature’s distorted face, throwing it back momentarily.

It was no use, though, the others closing in rapidly in its stead, and Felix felt tears gather in his eyes as he realized they were pretty much doomed.

He felt claws reach out for him, heard Jisung gasp in pain next to him, and as much as he tried to run faster, dodge and shake the creatures off, it was useless. To make it worse, he missed the protruding root in their path and his foot got caught. For a moment, the creatures got shaken off as he and Jisung flew through the air, before they hit the ground.

Felix didn’t dare open his eyes, not wanting to see the creatures swoop over them, and instead curled up to Jisung, holding on with all his might, while the pixie mirrored him.

His heart racing frantically drowned out the sounds around them, and so Felix missed what happened above their heads. He only realized time had passed when he could no longer hold his breath in anticipation of their demise, having to expel it and take a new one.

Why were they not being torn to shreds yet?

He didn’t dare look up, too scared of what he would see, until Jisung called out to him quietly.

“Felix… Look!”

He did, carefully, slowly peeling his face away from where he had buried it in Jisung’s shoulder, and looked at where Jisung was looking.

There, behind them, an almost silent but nonetheless brutal fight was taking place. No weapons clanked, though, and no noise escaped any of the opposing parties’ throats, only the rustling of fabric being heard in the otherwise eerily quiet woods. Instead, bright flashes of light and bouts of unsettling darkness were traded, and one by one, the shadow fae fell into those patches of darkness, disappearing with them.

Eventually, the last of the creatures that had been after them vanished, and the fighters turned to the two boys on the ground.

“You two; what were you thinking, coming into this forest with those creatures on the loose?! Did you think yourselves special enough to be able to take them on, on your own, or what?!” One of the warriors who’d banished the shadow fae barked the question, approaching them. He wore the colours of the fae court, and Felix recognized him to be one of the Royal Warriors of the Fae Court.

“Hey! No fair! It’s not like we wanted to! We’d much rather be somewhere else entirely and not being clawed at by those monsters ourselves, thank you very much! It’s not like we were given a _choice,_ though, so maybe go yell at our teachers and not us!” Jisung gathered his bearings faster than Felix, quickly standing up against the warrior’s accusations.

“Jisung… That’s a Royal Warrior of the Fae Court…!” Felix hissed quietly, but Jisung didn’t care.

“So, what? He still doesn’t get to stand there and tell us off for making stupid choices that almost got us killed when we didn’t make those choices! If we’d decided to run in here half-cocked to fight those ugly ass nightmares, fine, I wouldn’t say anything, but we _didn’t-_ ” He broke off when Felix cupped his face, staring intently at him.

“Shit, I’m crying, aren’t I. I am. Lovely, just lovely…” Jisung muttered then, when Felix answered his question with a silent nod.

“I think I’m entitled to some crying, though. We nearly died, Felix, fuck-…! I really thought this was it, that they had us, that we were going to die here, in this stupid, dark, moldy forest, and never get out of it again, never see light again, never-” He broke off again, with a sob this time, and Felix pulled him close. Jisung let him, burying his face against Felix’ shoulder as he cried and held on to him as if his life depended on it.

Felix knew exactly how Jisung felt, because he felt exactly the same way. He didn’t cry, feeling strangely numb, though. He was sure he would, later, when it all really settled in; but for now, he couldn’t, even if he wanted to, to release the stress from his body. He almost envied Jisung for being able to cry, but he made sure Jisung could do so undisturbed, giving the warriors glares that just dared them to interrupt them. And really, they gave them the time, whispering amongst themselves, sharing disbelieving, angry, affronted and straight up shocked looks as they did, and sparing the occasional pitying one for Felix and Jisung.

Eventually, Jisung’s tears dried, and he pulled away slightly from Felix’ near crushing hold. It was then that one of the warriors – a high ranking one, Felix deduced by the colours he wore – approached them.

“Come, we need to get you out of here and to safety. We might have banished a few of the shadow fae, but there are way more in this forest. It’s not safe for you here.” His voice was gentle, kind almost, and Jisung and Felix nodded tiredly, gladly letting a few of the warriors lead them out of that cursed forest.

They trudged in silence, tired and worn out to a point where they didn’t even have the energy to rejoice once light began to filter back through the treetops or they crossed out of the tree-line. They merely collapsed into their beds in their respective dorms once they reached them, falling into restless sleep.

***

Strangely enough, no one had seen Felix and Jisung leave the forest, escorted by the Fae’s Royal Warriors. All that transpired to the school’s population was that Felix and Jisung were in their beds while everyone waited eagerly for news from the forest. The only logical conclusion teachers and students alike came to was that the fae and the pixie must have tricked them to avoid the task given to them, and the disappointment was great. Weak, they were called. Chicken. Lazy. Incapable. Disappointments.

Felix was left unaffected by it, not caring what those others thought about him. Jisung, however, wasn’t. He took it to heart every time his supporters turned their back on him. Unlike what happened usually when that was the case, he didn’t strive to become better and beat Felix for sure in the next competition. No, this time, the mere thought of a next competition had him terrified, and he only knew one person who would understand him. And that person happened to like hanging out on the roof of the kitchens, between the large chimneys that blocked the wind, heated the air, and carried with them delicious smells.

“Hey…” He greeted, stepping between the chimneys at night; just as he did every night since that day in the forest.

“Hey.” Felix replied, scooting over just slightly to make room for Jisung next to him.

“How was your day?”

“The usual. Yours?

“Awful.”

And silence settled over them after that reply from Jisung, which didn’t need further explaining.

“Do you still get nightmares, too?” He asked after a while, and Felix hummed.

“Yeah. Not so much about the creatures anymore, but more about… dying.”

Jisung shuddered next to him.

“I get that… Though I keep waking up because I think they are grabbing me again. Even just the blankets pulling taut somewhere, and I’m right back there, thinking-…” He broke off, but he didn’t need to go on, Felix knowing without him explaining what he meant.

“How is your arm healing?” Felix asked a moment later, referring to where the claws of one of the creatures had dug into Jisung’s flesh.

“Still infected, but getting better. The salve the warriors gave me is really helping. And your ankle?”

“It was just sprained from that stupid root. Might not be going for any sprints any time soon, but it doesn’t hurt with every step anymore. Stairs are a bitch, though. What about your wrist?”

Jisung sighed.

“Please tell me you don’t feel guilty about it, still?”

“I will until it’s healed, and don’t think about lying to me to make me feel better!”

Jisung rolled his eyes, but pulled his sleeve back to show Felix his wrist, where the skin was still mottled in different shades of purple in the shape of Felix’ hand and fingers.

“I’ve been studying healing chants for bruises and contusions, I can-”

“It’s _fine_ , Felix, it’ll heal on it’s own. You don’t need to try and heal it.”

“I want to, though! I hurt you, I want to make it better!”

Stubbornly, Jisung pulled his sleeve back down, hiding the bruised limb.

“If you hadn’t dragged my ass through that forest the way you did, I would have fallen back and those monsters would have gotten to me before the warriors arrived. You saved my life; I can handle the bruise that saved my life.”

Felix was not happy, but he had since learned that there was one competition he would for sure always lose against Jisung, and that was when it came to stubbornness.

They fell into silence again, with Jisung’s head falling against Felix’ shoulder eventually before he spoke again.

“Isn’t it messed up that at this point, the only person I feel I can trust and rely on in this forsaken school is my biggest rival?” He asked, sadness tinging his voice, and Felix leaned his head back against Jisung’s.

“It’s not… We were forced into this stupid rivalry without having a say in it. They have tried to poison our minds against each other to get off on their own need for competition. If they hadn’t done that, we might have become friends despite who we are a long time ago.”

Jisung took a while to answer.

“Is that what we are? Friends?”

Felix hummed.

“Yes. That’s what it feels like… At least.”

“At least?”

“At least.”

“What else?”

“I don’t know. But friends is a good start, isn’t it?”

Jisung sighed, contentment in the sound.

“It is. Leagues better than rivals. I hate being your rival. I don’t want to compete against you. I like working with you much better.”

Felix chuckled lightly.

“Problems with your homework again?”

Jisung huffed, poking Felix’ side.

“That’s not what I meant! But… yes.”

“Which subject?”

“Transfigurations. Teacher Im just doesn’t get that pixies are not meant to transfigure anything; I’m not a wizard!”

“I know, right? Just like Teacher Kang doesn’t get that fae are not meant to cast destructive charms. I’m a creature of creation and growth, not destruction… Do you have your homework with you?”

Jisung nodded, made no move to get it, though. It took Felix shrugging his shoulder and dislodging Jisung for him to sigh and pull the assignment out of his pocket.

“I’m supposed to transform this into the same shape, but in liquorice. I don’t even like liquorice!” He grouched, extending o roll of yarn at Felix, who ignored it and stared at Jisung in bewilderment.

“What do you mean, you don’t like liquorice?! That’s the best thing since… ever! That’s it, friendship cancelled! I can’t be friends with someone with such cheap taste-buds!”

For a moment, fear flickered across Jisung’s features, and Felix immediately regretted the joke.

“I’m joking, Sung! Just joking! I’m not serious, and your taste-buds are not cheap. Of course, we can still be friends.”

Jisung released a sigh of relief.

“You know, it still messes with my head that you can manipulate the truth like that to make those kinds of jokes. I always think you’re serious…”

Felix cringed.

“I know, and I’m sorry. It’s just been so long since I had someone to joke with like this, and I forget. I’ll try to be more careful. Now, let’s see about that liquorice yarn, ok?”

***

Their friendship grew with their visits to the roof, which started as venting sessions, became study sessions, more venting sessions and times for confessions, learning about each other and the other’s world, and ended up with them getting closer and closer. Not rare were the times they would end up cuddling to preserve warmth as the nights grew colder, eventually falling asleep more often than not, wrapped up in each other and the blanket Jisung had snuck up there.

It culminated, though, when Felix came to the roof one day and Jisung was already waiting there, curled up around something.

“Sung? What do you have there?”

“Shh, quiet! You’ll scare him!”

Felix immediately shut up, approaching Jisung carefully and sitting down next to him quietly. As soon as he did, Jisung uncurled to show Felix what he was hiding.

“His wing is broken and he was really cold. I’ve been warming him up, and he’s already feeling better, but I can’t heal his wing.” He explained, showing Felix the little bird he was sheltering.

Felix gasped quietly.

“Oh no! Poor baby… Should I heal him?”

Jisung gave him a non-plussed stare.

“Well, of course, you should!”

Felix looked back sheepishly.

“I’m not good with bones yet, though. They are tricky and take time…”

“Well… The sooner you start, the sooner he will be better, right?”

Jisung had a point there, and Felix reached for the bird. Carefully, Jisung transferred him into Felix’ hands, and Felix cooed at him, before quietly starting to talk to him in the language of the fae. The bird looked up at Felix curiously, but seemed to calm down further, and Felix started singing. He sang in fae, and what limited knowledge Jisung had of the language thanks to his upbringing allowed him to understand that he was asking the bones of the little bird to shift back to how they originally were, to fuse back together, to stop hurting, to heal. All this time, the little bird sat patiently, without Felix having to keep holding him to prevent him from hopping away and potentially hurting himself more.

Eventually, Felix’ singing came to an end, silence settling over the three of them.

“Is he healed?” Jisung asked quietly, breaking the spell after a while, and Felix shook his head.

“No. Not yet. His bones need time to set and follow the request. It will take a while.”

“A while? How long is a while?”

“Two days, maybe? Three?”

Jisung gaped at Felix for a second, but then shook his head and nodded determinedly.

“Ok. We got this. He needs a house to stay in until then, somewhere where he will be safe and warm. And also, food; he needs food and water. You stay here and make sure he doesn’t hop away; I’ll get some things!”

And so, Jisung darted away, while Felix stayed behind with the little bird, quietly talking to him in fae.

Jisung returned after a while, a sturdy card-board box in one hand, a bag with a lot of different things in the other. Together, they built a little shelter for the bird, fixing it between the chimneys. They took turns charming it, making sure it would withstand wind and rain, stay cozy and warm and not allow in any predators so the bird would stay safe.

Thanks to Felix’ reassurances, the bird understood what was asked of him, staying in the shelter, where Felix and Jisung would visit him during every free minute they had, feeding him, and in Felix’ case, singing to him and his bones and injured tissues.

After three days, his wing was set, and the two boys decided to set him free again together.

“Fly, little one. You’re healed. Be free, and return to your family.” Felix encouraged him, in fae, and before they knew it, the bird flew off.

“Aww, there he goes, our little son.” Jisung wiped a fake tear away. “They grow up so fast!”

He was startled when Felix let out a real sniffle next to him, though.

“Wait, are you… aww, Lix!” Jisung cooed, hugging Felix tightly.

“Sorry, I just… I grew attached.”

“That’s ok. I grew attached, too. I’m just glad we could help him and he can be free and whole and happy again.”

“I’m happy, too. I’ll still miss him, though.”

“Yeah, me too… But we will have more children to care about eventually, you’ll see!” Jisung tried to cheer Felix up, who chuckled sadly.

“Will we? We are terrible parents. We didn’t even give our child a name!”

Jisung gasped.

“You’re right! Well, now that we have experience and know what we did wrong, we’ll know how to do better with our next child! And hopefully, our first son will forgive us in time for our unforgiveable mistake…!”

Felix couldn’t help but laugh quietly at Jisung’s overdramatic joking. It took his mind off his sadness, though, which was all Jisung had been attempting to do.

An hour later found the two laying cuddled together on the roof, wrapped in their blanket and looking at the clouds passing above them.

“Do you want to have actual children sometime?” Jisung eventually asked, and Felix hummed.

“Maybe… I don’t know yet. I haven’t given it much thought since my parents told me I wouldn’t necessarily have to produce an heir. You?”

Jisung shrugged.

“I’m not sure, either. I was given the choice, too, but I’m wondering about it for the first time right now. With everything going on… And always only focusing on competitions and classes and more competitions and being hyped and then shunned so fast… I haven’t even had time to think about dating, never mind partners or a whole family, including children.”

Felix agreed quietly.

“Yeah… Me either. Not necessarily because of the same reasons, but… With the kind of people surrounding us, I didn’t even want to contemplate any of them as a friend, never mind anything more… intimate? So, I haven’t given it any thought, either.”

“What about before you came here?”

“What about it?”

“Have you ever… _like_ liked someone before you were sent here?”

Felix shook his head no.

“No. And you?”

Jisung shook his head, too.

“I’m really curious, though. I mean, how do you even know if you like someone like that? What is it like, to have a crush? I don’t even know those things…”

Felix thought about that long and hard.

“I don’t know, either. Maybe it’s when you, like… want to kiss someone? And do those kinds of things, you know?”

Jisung huffed softly.

“That’s all? So, if I were curious about what it’s like to kiss in general, and say, would want to try it out with someone I trust, just to know what it’s like, and that person happened to be you, would that mean I like you, more than just a friend?”

Felix shook his head after not much thought.

“No, I don’t think that’s right…”

Jisung turned his head to look at Felix, eyebrow raised.

“I-I mean that that doesn’t automatically imply that you _like_ like me! There is nothing wrong about wanting to try kissing out of curiosity with someone you trust! And if that someone is me, there’s nothing wrong with that, either!”

Jisung tilted his head curiously at that.

“Would you?”

“Would I what?”

“Would you kiss me to see what it’s like?”

“Uh… sure?”

Felix sounded anything but, and Jisung picked up on it.

“Are you, though?”

This time, Felix took a while longer to think it through before giving Jisung his answer, but in the end he nodded.

“Yeah, I think I’m sure. I wouldn’t mind kissing you. I’d rather kiss you than anyone else, to be honest.”

Jisung’s face lit up a little at that.

“Really? And would you do it… now?”

Again, Felix took a moment to answer, but it was shorter, much shorter, this time.

“Yeah. If you want to, you can kiss me.”

“I do want to.”

“Then do it.”

Jisung propped himself up slightly, leaning closer, and Felix gave him an expectant look that prompted Jisung to lean closer and press his lips to Felix’. Just shortly, without much to it, before pulling away.

“I think… I think that wasn’t quite it…” Jisung remarked, self-critically.

“Hmm… I think we should move our lips when we kiss… Right?” Felix pondered, and Jisung nodded slowly.

“Again?”

“Again.”

And he leaned in again, his lips again just lingering on Felix’, though, until Felix moved his lips first. Jisung quickly reciprocated, until they had to break apart for air.

“That was…”

“…nice.” Felix concluded, and Jisung nodded.

“Really nice.”

“What if I would want to do it again?” Felix ventured, sitting up, and Jisung followed.

“Then you should do it.” He answered, and he didn’t have to prompt Felix twice. And it was just as nice. Still, the need for air in between was a nuisance, so they decided to go back to cuddling after that second kiss – or was it the third? Did the first attempt count?

“My lips still feel tingly.” Felix eventually admitted after a while, and Jisung nodded.

“Mine, too. And my chest, too. And all warm inside.”

Felix smiled up at the clouds.

“Yeah, mine too… What if this is what it feels like to _like_ like someone?”

Jisung thought about it for a moment.

“That would mean you _like_ me, though…”

Felix shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess it would… Would that bother you?”

This time, Jisung didn’t have to think about it.

“No. Why would it? It would mean I like you like that, too, after all.”

“True, you’re right…”

***

Those experimental kisses did not remain to be the only ones Jisung and Felix shared, many more following when they met up on the roof of the kitchens. Nothing really changed with the addition of kisses to their relationship and the possibility that they liked each other as more than just friends, though. Maybe they just became even cuddlier. And maybe they just missed each other more when they were apart. And maybe…

No, definitely-

It made them hate the idea of being rivals again even more.

Sadly, the school community slowly got over their disappointment in them over supposedly having broken off the last competition, and started thirsting for a new competition. The signs for that were everywhere, and Felix and Jisung made an effort to be as inconspicuous as possible, trying to go unseen and unnoticed wherever they went and whenever possible.

And so, it came that Felix was hiding behind a veiling charm on an empty, tucked away stair-case-landing between classes when a teacher stepped into the landing as well, and with him, Jisung.

“I know you and the fae have gotten closer, so I know you can find out what his weaknesses are, Jisung. Use his feelings against him if you have to. Make him believe that you love him to find out, for all I care, but you _have_ to beat him! I’m not losing another bet against Teacher Song.”

“Teacher, that’s- I can’t just-” Jisung stammered, but the teacher interrupted him.

“Nuh-uh-uh! Of course, you can!”

“Felix is my friend!” Jisung exclaimed, desperation in his voice, and Felix’ heart hurt.

“Friend, friend… He’s a fae, and you a pixie! There can be no such thing as friendship between you! He’s using you, the same way I’m telling you to use him! Can’t you see that?!”

Rage bubbled up inside of Felix, but pride swelled over it when Jisung didn’t believe the Teacher for even a second.

“He is not using me! He would never!”

“If he really isn’t, he is an even bigger fool than I thought. Either way, _you_ are going to find out his weaknesses, and are going to go back to beating him!”

Jisung started to argue again, but again, the Teacher shut him up.

“May I remind you that your grades in Transfiguration are not even close to passing ones? And that no matter what, pixie or not, you still need those grades to pass? Wouldn’t your mother be terribly disappointed if her son brought such disgrace over the name of the family - the entire nation, even - by having to repeat a whole year because he failed such an important subject…? Think about it, Jisung…”

And with that, the teacher left. As soon as his steps faded in the distance, Jisung crumpled, sitting down on the last step of the staircase, and buried his face in his hands as sobs wracked his body.

Felix didn’t think twice before hurrying to Jisung’s side, wrapping the veiling charm around them both and his arms around the pixie, holding him close.

“Oh, Sungie…”

Jisung let Felix hold him, leaning heavily against him.

“Teacher Im…” He started, but Felix shushed him.

“I know. I heard everything.”

“What do I do?” Jisung asked, sobbing desperately.

Felix took a moment to answer.

“I might have an idea…”

Hope bloomed in Jisung and he gave Felix an eagerly questioning look.

“You trust me, right?” Felix only answered, though.

“More than anyone else, ever.”

“Do you trust me enough to leave it to me and just play along?”

“Yes.”

“Ok. Then leave it to me and just play along, ok?”

That brought a small smile out between Jisung’s tears, and he poked Felix’ side.

“You’re so silly... But ok.”

Felix grinned, before placing a quick kiss on Jisung’s lips, then another on his nose, and one on his forehead, making him giggle despite his face still being damp with tears.

“Great. And we both know you love me for that!”

Yeah, Jisung thought. He loved Felix for his silliness. And everything else about him. And it was ok that they both knew that, because they also both knew that Felix loved it all back about him, too.

***

Jisung left it to Felix to save him from his seemingly impossible predicament with Teacher Im, trusting him implicitly. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t nervous, though, especially when the day of the big debate they had long since been anticipating arrived, with a spectacular argument about Felix’s and Jisung’s abilities, held between Teacher Im and Teacher Kang.

“Felix, what are we going to do?!” Jisung whispered desperately when they met up on the roof of the kitchen after the new competition had been announced.

“We’re going to do what we always do. We compete.”

Jisung’s jaw went slack, hurt flashing in his eyes.

“But-…”

“You trust me, right?”

Jisung nodded, without hesitating.

“Then just do what you would always do. Give your best to beat me. I will do the same.”

“But… what if one of us gets in trouble during the competition?”

“Just do what you feel like doing. Don’t worry about it. Act naturally, help me if you feel I need it, don’t if you don’t. It’ll all be ok, either way. We will be fine, Jisung.”

Jisung chewed on his lip nervously.

“I don’t like it, Felix…”

Felix closed the distance between them, bringing Jisung in for a hug.

“This will be our last competition, Jisung. I promise. We will be free after this.”

***

The day of the competition came, and with it, the realization that there were not two, but three factions watching them this time. Along with the people cheering on Jisung and Felix, respectively, a new group had formed that believed they would both fail and bet on it.

Felix very much felt like telling everyone not to bet on him, because he sure as hell didn’t want to be there as soon as he figured out what the competition was going to consist of. For all his bravado while comforting Jisung the day before, now it was him who just wanted to turn his back and leave and say ‘fuck all’ at everyone involved. And he might have, if he didn’t have a point to prove today. But since he did, he stayed, and tried hard to calm his nerves, which flared exponentially when he thought he saw one hairy leg high up in the tree they were standing around.

The thing was, one of the giant spiders had escaped the resident wildlife wrangler’s care and decided to spin it’s web all over a very rare and delicate tree growing on the grounds. The spider was dangerous, it’s sting deadly and its ability to shoot it’s net to catch prey even out of the air making it a formidable opponent. It was also a very rare creature and had to be caught alive and unharmed.

Now, even though Felix was supposedly in tune with everything living, his nature nurturing and protecting, he very much felt like just setting the whole damn tree on fire, with the spider in it, and call it a day. Sue him, he hated spiders; and before this beast crawled out of that tree and started nesting somewhere else, like, let’s say, _inside_ the school building… Felix didn’t even want to think about it. And he also had no idea how he was supposed to catch that spider, unharmed. Not that he really had means to harm it in the first place, but he also didn’t have means to stun it, for example. Not like Jisung had.

Speaking of Jisung, he stood almost on the opposite side of the circle around the tree, but still Felix could catch his gaze. He gave Felix a worried look once their gazes met, silently asking if Felix was ok. Felix shook his head minutely.

Jisung knew of his arachnophobia, of course he did. He knew pretty much everything about Felix at this point. Just like Felix knew everything about Jisung, and so it was easy for him to read his next silent question off his face, too.

_“Should I just take care of it?”_

Felix mouthed a silent ‘please’ in answer, to which Jisung nodded.

Still, Felix couldn’t just stay on the ground and do nothing when the signal to start came, and had to fly up as well. As soon as he did, a web came flying past him, narrowly missing him, and he yelped, shooting higher up. He did so just in time to avoid another piece of net that came out of the tree, clearly aimed at him.

Felix’ heart nearly jumped out of his chest in terror as he kept flying, narrowly avoiding pieces of web that rained down around him. He hated this, he hated spiders, he hated everything in that moment. Why did it have to be a spider? Spiders and things with wings did _not_ mix, everyone knew that! So, why, _why_ …?!

A stray piece of web grazed his face and he jumped back, avoiding the rest of it and frantically wiping at his face to get rid of the feeling. It made him stand still in the air for a moment too long, and the next web hit him full on. He couldn’t contain the yelp as he fought to get rid of the web, all rationale leaving him as the sticky strings wrapped around him, and inevitably ended up making his situation so much worse. His only luck in the situation was that he wasn’t that far from the ground when the web hit him, so at least the impact on the ground when he fell wasn’t that hard. Still, he would rather have taken a hard impact than the sight of the truly gigantic spider climbing down from the tree and towards him, while he was lying on the ground helplessly. It wasn’t so much fear of the spider, but nausea at the sight of it that consumed him and prompted him to close his eyes.

He missed what happened next, but was prompted to open his eyes to find out when the noise of the crowd watching at a safe distance rose exponentially all of a sudden. He did so just in time to see Jisung land between him and the spider, which now lay curled up and unmoving at the bottom of the tree. Immediately, the wildlife wrangler broke free from the crowd.

“I told you not to harm her!” He shrieked, running towards the spider.

“It’s not dead, just stunned. And if it’s ok for Felix to take a fall like that, it also is for that creature!” He huffed, then turned to ignore the wrangler and hurried to Felix’ side instead.

“Hey. You ok?” He asked, falling to his knees next to Felix.

“Yeah- No, not really. I’m not hurt, but I can’t move, and- and- this is disgusting, Sung, I-”

“Shh, calm down, I’ll get you out of this.” Jisung soothed him, and Felix took a shuddering breath, trying to focus only on Jisung to not let his nerves take over.

Jisung gave him a comforting smile before starting to tear away at the web restraining Felix, freeing him rather quickly.

“Han Jisung! What do you think you are doing?!” They were suddenly interrupted by an angry voice, a voice that belonged to Teacher Im. Jisung’s expression turned grim, but he didn’t turn to face the Teacher.

“I’m doing what you should be doing, which is making sure none of your students are hurt and help them if they are!” He spat, calm but loud enough for everyone in the crowd to hear him.

Teacher Im reached them, and reached out to grab Jisung by the shoulder to yank him back. Before he could, Jisung shrugged him off, though, moving out of his way while still never giving up his position between Felix and him.

“Han Jisung, watch your actions! That is your rival you are helping!”

Now, Jisung turned to face the Teacher, glaring at him.

“Says who?” He challenged, anger bleeding out of every one of his pores as he started emitting a still gentle glow all over. Deathly silence settled over the crowd as everyone’s eyes were on the trio, following the exchange with bated breath. Jisung didn’t wait for an answer, though, turning back to Felix to help him out of the last bits of the web and ignoring the world around them, the glow of anger ebbing down again with it.

“Are you sure you are ok? The fall looked nasty. Are your wings ok?”

Felix nodded, stepping away from the remains of the web on the ground, and Jisung followed him.

“Yes, I’m all ok. Might get a little bruise or two later, but nothing bad. The fall wasn’t that hard.” He looked past Jisung at where the wildlife wrangler was tending to the unconscious spider, and quickly back at Jisung as nausea welled up in him again.

“You got it! Congrats! And thanks.” He smiled at Jisung, and Jisung’s posture relaxed somewhat as he smiled in return.

“Thank you. And you’re welcome. You need a shower and a change of clothes, but…” Jisung stated, motioning at the traces of sticky web still clinging to Felix’ clothes and hair, but he still cupped his face in one hand and leaned in to place a single, soft peck on his lips.

“I’m glad you are ok. It was scary, seeing you fall.” He whispered, his true emotions showing through, and Felix wrapped his arms around him, hugging him comfortingly, even though that got spider-webs all over Jisung, too.

“I’m glad you took care of that creature. I was about to throw up when I saw it climb down from that tree and come towards me.”

Their moment was interrupted by several more of the teachers stepping out of the crowd with angry or annoyed expressions.

“What is the meaning of this? What is going on here?”

Felix held on to Jisung tighter, and only Jisung could feel the slight nervousness in Felix as he turned to address the teachers, because of the light trembling in his hands as they bunched to fists in Jisung’s clothes.

“What this means is that we are done being your toys for you to use in stupid competitions, risking our health and even lives for your entertainment.” Felix announced, none of the shaking in his hands bleeding into his voice, which came out stable and sure, defiant. He would have made his mother proud in that moment. “We will not keep competing with each other. You will have to find a different way to test our abilities and evaluate our progress than by forcing us to go against each other to feed an artificial rivalry that doesn’t exist, other than in your fantasies.”

For a moment, shocked silence settled over the crowd, before a rapidly growing murmur started as the onlookers discussed the meaning of Felix’ words.

“In what way we evaluate your abilities is not for you to decide, boy. Mind your place!” Teacher Moon spat, but Felix didn’t back down.

“Technically, no, it isn’t. But if it keeps putting our lives in danger, then yes, it is very much up to us to make sure we survive, since it doesn’t look like anyone else is interested in doing so!”

“Risking your lives, please! We have never risked your lives! Maybe if you were more competent…” Teacher Im snorted derisively, but before Felix or Jisung could answer to any of that, a voice in the crowd rose above all others, which quickly died down at its commanding tone.

“Sending two not even twenty summers old students into a forest full of shadow fae – creatures that only the most capable of the Royal Warriors of the Fae Court dare to engage, and only after at least a decade of training – does not count as risking their lives, then?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to the speaker, who was now stepping out of the rows of students, lowering the hood that had been obscuring their face. Immediately, Felix gasped, holding on to Jisung tighter.

“M-mom?” He whispered, but the woman might not have heard him as she continued.

“Sending those same two students to lure a Solitary Harpy out of it’s hiding place, is not risking their lives? Sending any winged creature, but especially a pixie, out onto the cliffs in the middle of a storm, is not risking their lives? Forcing them into the air to fight a predator that is specialized in hunting winged creatures out of that same air, is not risking their lives?”

As the woman – fae – stepped further out of the crowd and stopped in front of the teachers, her cloak melted away to show off the full royal attire she wore underneath.

“I don’t know if I’d rather believe that you were foolish enough not to know what you were doing by forcing these children to risk their lives time and time again, or that you genuinely believed they stood a chance. I still don’t know how they have survived for so long, with the practices you force upon them. I do, however, not appreciate learning that this is what my son and his partner have been forced through!” For the first time, her gaze shifted over to Felix and Jisung, who were still holding on to each other, and for the first time, it warmed a few degrees before shifting back to the gathered Teachers with icy coldness.

As always in situations such as this, while most of the accused would clam up, there would always be one brave or stupid enough to speak up, uttering the oldest lie since time itself came into being.

“Y-your majesty, it is not what it looks like-”

“Are you calling the esteemed Royal Warriors of the Fae Court liars, then?” Another voice rose from among the rows of students, and this time it were Jisung’s knees who almost gave out, even before the woman the voice belonged to stepped out of their rows, revealing her own royal attire.

“Your mom?” Felix whispered his question so only Jisung could hear him, and Jisung nodded weakly as he leaned all of his weight on Felix, who held him up and kept him from crumpling to the ground.

Not even the foolishly brave Teacher from before dared to answer the second queen’s question. Not that she was waiting for an answer.

“It is common knowledge that the Fae can’t lie, so I had no reason not to believe the Royal Warriors who informed me of the practices at this school. I came here, _desperately_ hoping that they had been misinformed, just to see my son’s partner being hunted by a vicious predator, getting hit and being left to fall to the ground unaided while it was up to my own son to make sure he would not suffer further from said predator’s attacks and be looked after. Seeing this with my own eyes, I have no reason to doubt any of the other incidents that have been reported to me. In light of this, I’d hope you’d be able to give me one valid reason – just one, that’s all I’m asking for at this point – why we shouldn’t close down this school for good and try everyone involved in front of both our courts for the attempted murder of our two princes.”

A gasp and shocked murmur went through the crowd at the pixie queen’s words, and both Felix and Jisung flinched quietly. The queens still noticed it, though, turning their attention to the two princes, who were still standing close to each other and holding on to one another for comfort.

“You don’t agree?” The Fae queen questioned, and Felix shook his head. It was Jisung who answered, though.

“Attempted murder is too harsh.” To this, Felix nodded in agreement.

“You do realize that you could have died, though. On multiple occasions.” The Pixie Queen prodded, and Jisung nodded.

“Unfortunately, yes. We didn’t, though.”

“No thanks to those who were supposed to keep you safe, however!”

“No. But, still. I think they merely had more faith in us than they should have had.” Jisung countered his mother’s accusation.

“It takes more than just misplaced faith to sent two children into a forest full of shadow fae!” The Fae Queen interjected at that point, and it was Felix’ turn to answer.

“No one knew for sure it were shadow fae in that forest. Nor how many there were. I merely had an inkling because I had heard of them before. They aren’t known well around here, and I don’t think anyone was expecting it to be them instead of a more harmless threat of fae nature.”

“Ignorance is not an excuse.”

“It should be, though.” Felix didn’t back down, holding his mother’s gaze, and really, the queen relented, addressing the gathered teachers again.

“Very well, then. It would seem our sons are more merciful than what any of you deserve. We should continue this discussion in a more private setting. Preferably inside. The weather in this district is awful!”

***

Felix and Jisung were sent to clean up before joining their mothers ahead of the meeting with the rest of the faculty. They did so quickly, but decided to wait for each other before facing their mothers.

“Did you know they would be here?” Jisung asked in a whisper as soon as he met with Felix in front of the latter’s dorm.

“No. I was aware that the Royal Warriors would tell my mother about the incident in the forest, but I didn’t think they would find out about the others. I also didn’t think she would come here personally; I knew she would send someone to observe from the shadows and report back to her, and that she might demand the competitions stop after hearing from this one from an eye-witness, but not… this.”

“You said you were close with her, though… It makes sense she would come check up on you after hearing about what happened in the forest.” Jisung mused, but Felix shook his head.

“We might be close, but she is a busy woman. I really didn’t expect her to come here. Nor did I expect your mom…”

Jisung inhaled sharply, holding his breath for a moment before releasing it sharply.

“Yeah… Me neither. I mean, had I known that she had been informed, then yes, I would have expected her any minute, but I didn’t think there would be any way for her to find out… From your Royal Warriors, no less.”

“Looks like our moms became friends at some point while we were gone from our courts, huh.”

“For very selfish and obvious reasons, I sure hope so!”

They reached the room their mothers were waiting in, unmistakable due to the guards flanking the door, and were let through.

“Felix!” His mother exclaimed, rushing over to inspect him up close, before pulling him into a tight hug.

“Mom, you’re crushing me…”

“Shh, let me crush you for a little bit. It’s been a long time since I saw you, and with the first thing I see of you after such a long time being you being shot out of the sky, I think it warrants a little crushing.”

Felix relented, wrapping his arms around his mother in turn.

“It wasn’t really out of the sky, mom. I wasn’t that high up.”

“High enough! Are you sure you are ok?” She pulled away, holding Felix at arm’s length and letting her eyes wander over him as if she would be able to detect any hidden injuries like that.

“I am, mom. A little shocked at seeing you here, but fine.”

“I couldn’t not come here after hearing from the Warriors. And I am glad to see that Queen Hana agreed to come as well.”

At that, Jisung’s mother let go of her own son, who looked similarly smothered as Felix did.

“Of course, I had to come! I was always aware that my Jisung is a highly capable pixie, even in areas that are not traditionally a pixie’s forte, but after hearing what you two were put through…”

“We can call ourselves lucky that you two were not as obstinate as your ancestors and were able to overlook your differences in the face of adversity to prosper together. You might not have survived otherwise.” Felix’ mother added, and the Pixie Queen nodded in agreement.

“And you might just have taught us old ones a valuable lesson or two in the process. In light of the developments between you two, Queen Lia and I have come to the decision that maybe it is time to put an end to the age old dispute between our kinds. It would not do, to have our kinds at odds with each other if our courts were to merge eventually…”

Jisung and Felix exchanged a startled look.

“Mom!” Jisung exclaimed first.

“We are friends!” Felix followed up, to which Jisung nodded vehemently.

“Friends who kiss?”

“Yes!” They answered Felix’ mother’s question in unison.

“And who adopt bird children together?” She continued, and Felix’ jaw dropped while Jisung gave her an incredulous look.

“How do you-…”

“A little bird who came to spend the winter in the south told me all about a pair of princes who saved his life in the north, healed him in time to start his migration to the south and adopted him, but failed to give him a name. Seriously, how could you forget to give your child a name?”

Jisung and Felix sported matching blushes, avoiding both queens’ gazes.

“We are still new at this whole… parenting thing.” Jisung muttered quietly, and his mother chuckled.

“So, you admit you adopted the bird, together?”

“Of course.”

“You know, the bird didn’t just tell me about how the princes healed and adopted him. He also told me about the love they share with each other...” The Fae Queen continued.

“So what if we are friends who love each other? Isn’t that better than loving each other without being friends?” Jisung asked defiantly, taking both queens aback for a moment.

“Wise words for such a young pixie…” Felix’ mother had to concede.

Before anyone else could add to where the conversation was heading, Felix decided it was wise to interrupt them all there, addressing both queens at once as he stepped out of his mother’s reach and next to Jisung, who had a feeling what it was Felix was about to say and encouraged him silently by taking his hand in his own.

“Before everyone gets ahead of themselves… I want to ask you to please not meddle with what Jisung and I have. It is ours, and we have had more than enough people trying to meddle with it for far too long. Give us time and peace to figure out on our own what it is and what we want to do with it.”

The queens remained silent for a moment, until Jisung’s mother nodded slowly in acknowledgement.

“I take it you will oppose the idea to come back to our courts with us, from what I can see…”

“Yes. We will.” Jisung didn’t have to think before confirming his mother’s suspicion.

“I do oppose that you stay under the so-called care of the Teachers you have here, however.” Queen Lia interjected, to which Felix’ hand tightened around Jisung’s.

“So do I.” Queen Hana agreed, and both Felix and Jisung held their breath in anticipation, readying themselves to fight their mothers on this, if need be. “But you have proven to be way ahead of what a school can teach either of you. Maybe an ambassador role with some private tutoring would be more fitting…?” She suggested, and some of the building tension fell off the two princes.

“Together?” Felix asked, just to make sure.

“Of course, together. Would you even accept anything else at this point?”

“Not really…”

The queens both smiled at that, and Queen Lia clapped her hands once.

“Well then, my sons, any preferences which court you’d like to be assigned to?”

Felix and Jisung exchanged a look, and knew they were thinking the same thing.

“The court of the witches.” Jisung answered for both of them, surprising the queens.

“You want to stay in this district?!”

They nodded, before Felix explained their reasoning.

“This district clearly needs to learn more about fae and pixies alike. And who better to ensure that than someone who’s already lived among witches for as long as we have?”

***

“I can’t believe they really assigned us as their ambassadors here, together…!” Jisung whispered excitedly while unpacking what little belongings they’d had at the school in his new room at the royal castle. There was no reason to whisper, but Jisung was just so caught up in his incredulity that it felt fitting.

“That, I can. What I find hard to believe is that finally, we won’t have to be rivals anymore. We can finally just be friends.”

Jisung put the last of his things down and walked up to where Felix was sitting on the bed, not even stopping before straddling his lap and pushing him back so he lay on the bed. Felix didn’t resist, already anticipating the kiss Jisung planted on his lips right after and reciprocating it just as passionately.

“Just friends, or maybe more?” Jisung asked with a challenging smile as they parted for air, and Felix hummed as he pretended to give it a moment of thought, before linking his hands behind Jisung’s neck to pull him down for another kiss. Despite Jisung’s playful question, Felix’ answer was full of sincerity

“Definitely friends… But maybe more.”


End file.
